DAVAO City Police Office (DCPO) will start transferring persons under police custody (PUPC) with a commitment order to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) Davao facility to decongest their detention cells.
DCPO Director Police Colonel Kirby John Kraft said they have been coordinating with the Warden of Davao City Jail on the acceptance of PUPC beginning on Thursday, June 4.
Kraft said there are currently a total of 448 PUPC in different police stations in Davao City.
After BJMP Davao implemented lockdown in March, they no longer accept new persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) as a precautionary measure to prevent massive Covid-19 infection inside the jail similar to what happened in Cebu City Jail where several inmates were infected.
Given the overcrowded population, the facility is vulnerable to transmission if an asymptomatic carrier will enter.
Due to a lockdown at BJMP jails in the region, congestion in jail cells at the local police stations are putting inmates at risk due to the lack of social distancing.
“The protocol is that BJMP will accept our PU in batches only every 15 days. So BJMP will only accept our second batch of PUCPs on June 19 then the next will be after 15 days again and so forth,” Kraft said.
All police stations are directed to prepare PUPCs with commitment ready for transfer.
He, meanwhile, assured that necessary protocols are applied during the transfer.
Kraft said that PUPCs have undergone rapid diagnostic tests to ensure that they are safe to be transferred.